Pratt Gets Contract

Pratt & Whitney on Tuesday received a $164.3 million contract from the Air Force to upgrade jet engines.

The contract, awarded to Pratt`s Government Products Division in northwestern Palm Beach County, involves improving the Air Force`s F100 engines.

The Air Force uses the F100, Pratt`s workhorse military jet engine, to provide power to its F-15 and F-16 fighter jets.

Although the Air Force has used F100s in its fighters since 1970, Pratt has made several changes in the design of the engine over the years. The most recent version of the F100, called the F100-PW-220, has been used since late 1985.

Manufacturing new F100s for the Air Force accounts for roughly a half-billion dollars a year in revenue to Pratt`s Government Products Division.

The division employs almost 8,000 people, making it Palm Beach County`s second largest employer after International Business Machines Corp. Pratt has been laying off supervisory employees while at the same time hiring engineers in some specialties.

Ted Johnson, a Pratt spokesman, said Tuesday that the latest Air Force contract should have little effect on employment at the plant except to help stabilize it.